The Acer Swift Edge 16 is less expensive and offers portability with a thinner and lighter design. It has an OLED screen with higher resolution and color accuracy, making it suitable for general use and professionals who work with visuals. On the other hand, the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 costs more and is tailored for gaming and resource-intensive tasks with a high-end processor, powerful graphics card, and a higher refresh rate display, but it's bulkier and heavier, limiting its portability. If cost and carrying convenience are crucial for you, and you do general purpose tasks or need accurate colors, the Acer is a good choice. But if you're focused on gaming or heavy tasks like 3D rendering and are less concerned about portability and price, the ASUS would serve you better. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Acer Swift Edge 16
Very good portability
Advantages of the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17
Very good for gaming and AI
Very good overall build quality
Very good speakers
Excellent keyboard
Key differences
Gaming and AI
6.7/10
8.4/10
4.0/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
8.8/10
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
360Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
8.0/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
6.7/10
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 is very good for gaming and AI, while the Acer Swift Edge 16 is only fair.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 outshines the Acer Swift Edge 16 for gaming and 3D tasks due to its superior Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU and significantly higher screen refresh rate, which result in smoother visuals and better responsiveness during intense gaming sessions. While the Acer Swift Edge 16 offers a commendable GPU and screen refresh rate for gaming, the ASUS's more powerful graphics processing and higher refresh ability ensure peak gaming performance.
Screen Quality
8.8/10
8.1/10
16.0in
SIZE
17.3in
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
360Hz
383.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
292.0 nits
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has a better screen than the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 for general use, engineering and design, and software development, while the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has a better screen for gaming and AI.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 excels in general use and engineering with its high-resolution, bright display that offers vibrant color accuracy crucial for design work; however, its lower refresh rate hampers its performance in gaming and 3D tasks where smooth motion is key. The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17, while good for general and engineering use, lacks the superior color fidelity of the Swift Edge, but its shortfall in screen quality for gaming and 3D is due to a poor refresh rate, although its resolution and panel type are adequate. For users whose priorities are professional design work and crisp image quality for everyday tasks, the Acer Swift Edge 16 is preferable, but neither excels in refresh rate, which is vital for gaming or 3D applications.
Portability
Very Good
Poor
16.0in
SIZE
17.3in
2.7 lbs
WEIGHT
6.3 lbs
0.5in
THICKNESS
1.0in
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has very good portability, while the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has poor portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.2/10
8.5/10
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has very good build quality, while the Acer Swift Edge 16 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$820
$2,499
$0
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has a price of $820 and the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 costs $2,499.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 and Acer Swift Edge 16 are both good for general use.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 offers an excellent balance for general use with its top-tier screen quality due to the OLED display and high screen pixel density, lightweight design for increased portability, and a mid-range battery life that suits everyday tasks.
Engineering and Design
8.1/10
8.6/10
8.8/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.2/10
4.0/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
8.8/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 and Acer Swift Edge 16 are both very good for engineering and design.
PerfectRec’s Engineering and Design Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for graphic design and 3D rendering work.
Content Creation
8.1/10
8.2/10
8.8/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.2/10
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 and Acer Swift Edge 16 are both very good for content creation.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.9/10
7.5/10
8.8/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.2/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
6.7/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
The Acer Swift Edge 16 and ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 are both good for software development.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Battery
7.0 Hours
7.0 Hours
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has 7 hours of battery life. The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 has 7 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
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How the Acer Swift Edge 16 and the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 compare to other laptops
"The Acer Swift Edge 16 is a solid super thin-and-light that pairs a large, gorgeous 16-inch display with portable design that rivals the weight of LG’s superlight Gram 16. Remarkably, Acer achieves this at a lower price point without sacrificing performance. Boring design and disappointing battery life hold the laptop back from stardom, but its rivals frequently suffer in these areas, too. That makes the Swift Edge 16 an alluring value pick."
"Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 laptop review: liquid metal 7 nm AMD Zen 3 is stunning. The raw performance increase is absolutely bonkers if you're upgrading from a laptop on Coffee Lake-H or older. The 45 W Ryzen 9 5900HX is neck-to-neck with the thicker, heavier, and hotter Schenker Ultra 17 running on a desktop-class Core i9-11900K despite their wide TDP differences. The performance-per-watt advantages can make Intel Rocket Lake feel like a last generation platform at times. As for the chassis itself, it's a huge light show with RGB LEDs on almost all sides of the system."
Get a great deal on the Acer Swift Edge 16 or the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17
About Acer
Acer is a prominent Taiwanese electronics brand which makes a wide range of laptops, with multiple product lines catering to personal use, gaming, and business use. They are renowned for having exceptional value for money, as they frequently offer good specifications at a lower price than other manufacturers.
About ASUS
ASUS, a Taiwanese electronics brand, is one of the largest personal computer vendor by market share. The majority of their laptops are targeted towards personal use or gaming. Their most popular product lines include the budget-friendly VivoBook, more premium ZenBook, and their TUF and ROG gaming laptops, the latter of which has a reputation for excellent gaming performance.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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About the laptop team
Joe Golden, Ph.D
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Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
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Staff Expert & Software Engineer
Chandradeep is a staff expert and software engineer and expert in televisions and monitors. He’s been making monitor recommendations for ten years.
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